My fifth sermon will be on May 31, 2009.
The first was in Amarillo, Texas at a Salvation Army center. That was on a March or April of 1993. I was a student then. My audience were mostly homeless people. And my fellow students who were with me were Juliana Ribeiro (now Valentini) (piano), Greg Luce (guitar) and Dalona Borgman (morale support). The topic of my sermon was "treasures on earth & treasures on heaven". It was a good 10-15 minutes sermon I think, and I was basically reading from my own manuscript! The audience must have been bored to death or confused, and especially with my heavy Malaysian accent trying to preach deep in the heart of Texas! Thank you Dr Buddy Young for giving me that opportunity to preach. He was my BSU director and spiritual mentor.
My second sermon was at Kota Kinabalu Baptist Church on June of 1993. It was only about two or three weeks after I returned from US after a five-year absent from Malaysia! Peter Lai (one of KKBC lay leaders) talked to me one night (it was during a prayer meeting) and asked me if I would like to preach on the following Sunday morning. Without much thoughts, I took the opportunity almost immediately. I was free to choose any topic and I went for "faith". I was super excited I guess but I knew now that I lacked preparation. In the end, the morning came and go and I ended my sermon in less than 10 minutes! Wow and wow and wow! Should I say "it was impressive" or should I say "it was such a great embarrassment"? Lesson to learn for me.
Third sermon was in 1995 also at KKBC. This time Pastor James Khoo was already the church pastor (since Nov 1993) and bless his heart that he gave me an opportunity to preach. I decided to take up the challenge yet again. After much prayers and thoughts, I chose "salt & light" as my next topic. Unfortunately, don't know where the idea came from, I saw someone's sermon and plagiarized! Awww, John! Why did you do that? Well, I was a rookie (still is) and I know not much about sermon preparation. The day came and it was mostly reading (instead of preaching) and I sensed later that some in the congregation knew it was taken from someone else's sermon. (And I remembered quite well that Pastor James said that my sermon was not relevant.) Oh well. That's life and it has to move on!
Fourth sermon was yet again at KKBC and yet again given the chance by Pastor James Khoo.This time it was a pre-Christmas sermon (Dec 1996) and my topic was "liberation of Christ's birth". I studied Dan Kennedy's book on "What if Christ was not born?". Two or three months I prepared, I think. I used the analogy of US liberation of Kuwait in the early 1990s. I used the Western civilizations' contribution to the developing nations... a lot of Christian missionaries were part of the early Western colonization of the third world -- they introduced modern medicine, modern education, democratic government, etc. I remembered the late Jim and Terri (an elderly couple of Dallas and also of SIL) who were amongst the congregation and they initiated a round of applause at the end of my sermon... that was a great encouragement. My voice was low and I read too much. But things can only get better.
Now comes my fifth. It will be at 11:15am at KKBC on May 31, 2009. The topic: Fulfillment of the Law from Matthew 5: 17-20, yeah! Preparations have been done for the past two months. The longer time I am given to prepare, the wider the stretch I will take to prepare. It will never end. So, what can I do? This week it the final lap before d-day and I need to refine and get my emotions into it. No time for anything else. So, knock 'em dead, John. And knock my socks and their socks off!
